Digermene dissociation

It is interesting that the aryl groups in tetrakis(2,6-diethylphenyl)diger-mene do not shift under the same conditions or upon thermolysis, presumably because of steric hindrance. However, upon photolysis, tetrakis(2,6-diethylphenyl)digermene dissociates to the diarylgermylene.48... 

Tetrakis(2,6-diethylphenyl)digermene 3 is reportedly converted into hexakis(2,6-diethyl-phenyl)cyclotrigermane 12b on heating in solution1-). The proposed mechanism involves the dissociation of digermene 3 into two germylenes Dep2Ge 40, followed by their... 

Many of the results reviewed here suggest that a replacement of the usual alkyl or aryl substituents by silyl substituents in unsaturated silicon and germanium compounds may be rewarding. As we noted, silyl substituents do tilt the properties of silylenes, silyl radicals, and sequential BDE trends toward those in carbon chemistry. They have already been shown to stabilize disilenes with respect to dissociation to two silylenes, and this may be crucial to the further development of digermene and distannene chemistry. 

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